About the Book

In China's Southwest, less visited in many ways than Yunnan's other destinations, the region between Kunming and the border crossing into Vietnam is a rewarding area to explore.

Here you will find descendants of a Mongolian army, the old Ming city of Jianshui, the rice terraces of Yangyung and markets and villages peopled by colorful ethnic minorities.

Mason Philip Smith has had one-man exhibitions at the University of Maine in Orono, Maine; at the University of Southern Maine, Portland, Maine; Westbrook College, Portland, Maine; in Newton and Greenfield, Massachusetts, in Archangel, Russia and in Nova Scotia. In addition, he has exhibited extensively in group exhibitions throughout the Northeast, including at the DeCordova Museum, Lincoln, Massachusetts, and Colby College.

A portfolio of his landscape photographs of Maine is included in the Traveling Exhibition Service of the University of Maine, Orono, Maine. His documentary photographs of venacular Maine buildings are included in the collection of the Maine Historical Preservation Commission, Augusta, Maine.

A collection of his large format photographs of early Maine colonial gravestone carvings has been exhibited throughout Maine and is currently part of the collection of the Maine Historical Society.

About the Author

Mason Philip Smith has photographed extensively in Asia and Traces an exhibit of his images from Korea, China, Japan, Vietnam and Thailand was held at the University of Southern Maine, Portland, Maine during the summer of 2005.
In September of 2007 an large exhibition of his images from Asia & Newfoundland was held at the Hines Museum of Photography in Nova Scotia. Recently, the Hines museum selected 12 of Smith's China images for it's permanent collection.
He is the author of Confederates Downeast, Confederate Operations In and Around Maine and co-author of Four Short Blasts, The Great Gale of 1898 & The Loss of the Steamer Portland.